RMIM Archive Article "11".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Asha Bhosle
#
# Posted by: "Rajan P. Parrikar" (parrikar@mimicad.Colorado.EDU)
# Source: The Illustrated Weekly of India, Sept 4-10, 93
#
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Yeh Hai Asha
By
Raju Bharatan
Illustrated Weekly of India
September 4-10, 1993
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Yeh Hai Asha was the name of the personality test programme that
Asha Bhonsle devised for herself in the wake of Runa Laila's in-
vasion of India, some 18 years back. With her telegenic personal-
ity, Runa Laila swept Indian viewers off their feet. Her
singing-swinging presence was something sensationally new for In-
dian viewers.
It made both Asha and Lata, with that notebook a mental crutch in
their hands, think again. It took Lata time to overcome the trau-
ma of Runa and acquire a different kind of stage presence. But
Asha adjusted swiftly. Asha instictively realised that, with the
advance of TV in India, suppleness of throat had to be matched by
suppleness of limb.
The outcome was Yeh Hai Asha. It had taken Asha the best part of
30 years to do it. For decades she had laboured under the concept
that she was the lesser singer because she was the lesser sister.
But today she has divined the true range and sweep of her own vo-
cals. Today she knows she has her own audience, distinct from
Lata's. O P Nayyar it was who brought Asha out of the Lata sha-
dow. R D Burman then made Asha the harbinger of a new trend.
There were some inevitable strains in the Asha-RD relationship as
Bappi Lahiri arrived as the new hit-maker. Inevitably Asha, as
our most flexible voice on record, came to serve this new wave
composer too, even though it was R D Burman that Bappi Lahiri was
challenging. The development cramped RD's style for a while. But
soon RD realised that, after a quarter century in films, his po-
sition was bound to be questioned. Therefore RD assessed himself
afresh. And the outcome was a rhythmic reunion with Asha in the
shape of Dil Padosi Hai.
What is it about Asha that makes her the ready choice of com-
posers old and new? From OP to RD to Bappi she has kept hectic
vocal pace. Naushad, for instance, told me something amazing not
too long ago. "You know, " he said, "Asha is Lata's match at
last in almost every respect." "But wasn't it yourself," I rem-
inded him, "who once said jo baat Lata mein hai woh Asha mein
nahi hai." "So I did," agreed Naushad, "but maybe at that time, I
had a closed ear on Asha. Just as I had a closed ear on Kishore
Kumar too. It was only when I condescended, after 30 years or so,
to record an Asha- Kishore duet for Sunhera Sansar that I dis-
cerned how intelligent and quick to grasp Kishore was. [If only
Naushad-Sahab had asked me earlier!:-) - RP] This is Asha's
strength too. Teach her just once and she even improves on what
you have composed!"
The very fact that she should have induced such rethinking in a
vintage music director like Naushad is a measure of Asha's
phenomenal advance. It has to be accepted as a settled fact that
Asha is the most versatile voice among our female singers - like
Mohammad Rafi was among our male singers. [Bharatan-Sahab, what
do we have to do to convince you that Kishore was as versatile,
if not more, as Rafi? Eh?:-) - RP]
After all, there is nothing that Asha can do for R D Burman today
that she could not do equally well for his father, S D Burman
too. If SD wanted a singer to give breath-taking expression to a
Jewel Thief heart stealer like Raat akeli hai, he could find one,
and only one singer, Asha, to do the job for him. By the same to-
ken, if RD created something so contemporary for Hare Krishna
Hare Rama like Dum maro dum, he could get that final sense of wow
expression only from Asha.
Whether the number be Dum maro dum or Mera naam hai Shabnam (from
Kati Patang), the sum-total of the impression you carry is that
none but Asha Bhonsle could have given it the final vocal stamp
it acquired. In choosing her Ten Bests recently, Asha named RD's
O mere Sona re Sona re Sona re (from Teesri Manzil) as one of her
great favourites. O mere Sona re Sona re Sona re is important
because Teesri Manzil (1966) was the film with which the hep
Asha-RD tuning began.
Originally O P Nayyar was to have composed the music for Teesri
Manzil. The two together, Asha and OP, would have produced, of
course, as thematic a score for Teesri Manzil as Asha and RD fi-
nally did. For these are the two music directors (OP and RD) for
whom Asha always reserved something special.
No relationship lasts for ever, of course, so that, like all good
things, the Asha-OP tuning too came to an end. But not before OP
had created for Asha such evergreen numbers to put over as Piya
piya na lage mora jiya (Phagun), Chhota sa baalama (Raagini),
Puchhon na humen hum unke liye (Mitti me Sona), Woh hans ke mile
humse (Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi), Yehi woh jagah hai yehi woh
fizaayen (Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi), Phir thes lagi dil ko (Kash-
mir ki kali), Tum ko karodon saal huye (Sambandh), and never
least, Chain se humko kabhi aap ne jeene na diya (Pran Jaye Par
Vachan Na Jaye).
It was after her musically beautiful relationship with O P Nayyar
came to end [coinciding with the end of her personal relationship
with OP - RP] that Asha turned to R D Burman as the new trend-
setter. yet only the trend-setters have changed today. The voice
of Asha Bhonsle remains uniquely constant, no matter what be the
composing identity of the man making the music.
The music Asha made with O P Nayyar merits special mention only
because this was the lone composer for whom Asha was number one
from the word go. OP never used the voice of Lata in his life,
for him the choice of female voice, by 1956, began and ended with
Asha Bhonsle.
RD was different, it took him some years to realise that he had
tp create a music that was pre-eminently his own if he was to
break away from the banyan-tree shadow of his father, S D Burman.
Until he realised that he had to be so radically different, RD
too settled for Lata as his main female voice, bringing in Asha
only for foot-tapping numbers. But once he made a clean break
from SD it was Asha who gave RD his new Voice-of-Youth identity
as a composer.
Even while hearing Asha and RD zoom together, even while awaken-
ing to Asha's emergence as a freewheeler-singer nonpareil, always
remember that Asha's voice is, and was, all things to all com-
posers. The remarkable thing about Asha's vocalising is that she
is an entirely self-made singer who has made her own way to the
top in the face of vintage composer dismissing her as not a patch
on Lata.
Even S D Burman, whose main female voice Asha was for six years
(1957 tp 1963), ditched her - after all that she had sung for him
- when he saw an opportunity to make up with Lata with Bandini.
This was the film in which SD, even while asking Asha to pour her
heart and soul into the rendition of Ab ke baras bhej bhaiya ko
babul, was quietly, behind Asha's back, making up with Lata (with
whom he had fallen out) and getting the Mangeshkar to put over
Jogi jab se tu aaya mere dwaare for the same Bandini!
A less determined woman would have given up the fight in the face
of such sustained discrimination. But Asha never said die. And
finally found acceptance in the highest quarters when a confirmed
Lata-buff like Khayyam chose her to sing all those lovely ghazals
on Rekha playing Umrao Jaan. And what virtuosity Asha brought to
Umrao Jaan ghazals ranging from Dil cheez kya hai to In aankhon
ki masti to Justju jiski thi to Yeh kya jageh hai doston. Umrao
Jaan only confirmed what Naushad admitted only later - that Asha
was every bit as original a singer as Lata.
It is not as though Asha, early on, did not give splendid results
when performing for composers who were mentally committed to
Lata. If it is proof of her artistry under such pro-Lata com-
posers you want, you have it in Madan Mohan's Ashkon se teri hum
ne (Dekh Kabira Roya), Anil Biswas's Dil shaam se dooba jaata hai
(Sanskar), Naushad's Radha ke pyare Krishna Kanhai (Amar),
Sajjad's Tere jahan se chal diye (Rukhsana), C Ramchandra's Shama
par jalke bhi parwaana pana hota nahin (Meenaar), S D Burman's
Tasveeren banti hai taqdeeren banti hai (Jeevan Jyoti), Deepak se
deepak jal gaye (Anjali), Shanker-Jaikishan's Haay saawan ban
gaye nain (Krorepati) and Salil Chowdhury's Baag mein kali khili
(Chaand Aur Suraj).
I have studiedly made these Asha selections from the era in which
the composers identified above vibed first and last with Lata. My
idea in presenting such a selection is to draw pointed attention
to the fact that had these Lata-lorn composers but cared to take
the trouble, they could have tapped in Asha, a throat of equal
potential. But they just would not care to give Asha a fair hear-
ing those days, so that this phenomenal singer had to finally
make it all on her own - by the long hard road.
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From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian